Edward Albee's "At Home At The Zoo: Homelife & The Zoo Story" at Signature is a pretty perfect evening of theatre. Directed by Lila Neugebauer, who directed the stellar "The Wolves" at The Playwright's Realm last year, and starring Robert Sean Leonard, Paul Sparks and the divine Katie Finneran, this is an evening of pure intellectual and artistic satisfaction. The scenic design by Andrew Lieberman takes the Cy Twombly squiggles that serve as a backdrop for the exploration of a marriage in "Homelife" and replicates them in the pattern of the park benches in the encounter between two strangers in "The Zoo Story." Albee always forces us to dig deeper and to think more about our preconceived beliefs of who we are. Signature is often hit or miss but they always get Albee right. Bravo!
The latest offering from The Playwright's Realm is a bit of a miss although an enjoyable one. Since their above-noted production of "The Wolves" and the equally impressive but less lauded "The Moors" their offerings have not been up to the mark. In Don Nguyen's "Hello, From The Children of Planet Earth" a lesbian couple who are having trouble in their attempts to conceive contact a male classmate and friend of one of the women, now a NASA scientist keeping track of the Voyager satellite, for help. Jade King Carroll adeptly directs the able cast but the subject matter is pretty old-hat. I feel like I've seen this play many times before. The most interesting aspect of the production is the character Farthest Explorer portrayed here by Olivia Oguma who as Voyager 2 muses about the universe from their place in space. I suppose there are parallels to be had to the situation on Earth but mainly I just enjoyed her performance.
"Hangmen" at Atlantic Theater Company is Martin McDonagh's latest, coming on the tail of his enormous success as writer/director the Academy Award nominated "Three Billboard Out of Ebbing, Missouri." I wasn't a fan of the film but his plays, most recently the "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" at BAM, are always powerful. "Hangmen," which had it's debut at The Royal Court Theatre in London, has retained it's director Matthew Dunster and much of the original cast including the mesmerizing and edgy Johnny Flynn as Mooney, a presumed rapist and murderer, and Mark Addy as Harry, one of the hangmen in question. Ultimately the play is a Wild West story of vigilante justice, superb in it's telling.
The Soho Rep is finally back in their home space on Walker Street with "Is God Is" by Aleshea Harris. The play is directed by Taibi Magar, who most recently directed the acclaimed "Underground Railroad Game" at Ars Nova. Twin sisters who were badly burned in a fire set by their father are sent by their dying mother who they barely know to find him and murder him. Dame-Jasmine Hughes and Alfie Fuller are terrifying as the sisters but then everyone in this gothic revenge play is pretty terrifying. I also couldn't stop feeling the influence of Sam Shepard throughout. Props to Soho Rep for producing a really fine play with black characters, a black playwright and a black director. That's what I call making it real. I'm back on board with Soho Rep!
I hate to end this blog post on a downer but Joshua Harmon's "Admissions" at Lincoln Center is a total fail in my book. The subject is tired and the direction and acting do nothing to raise the material. The son of the white admissions officer at an elite (but second-tier) prep school whose mantra is diversity is not accepted to the Ivy of his choice but his (half) black friend and classmate who has lower grades, test scores and fewer extra-curriculars has been. Crisis for the privilaged white family! Yawn. The biggest problem with the play though, directed by Daniel Aukin, is that there are no people of color in the cast. Or the audience at the performance I attended. I don't even know what to say about that...
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Easing into February
I think it's the enda Enda for me. With "Ballyturk" at Saint Ann's Warehouse Enda Walsh returns to a set-up he used in "Arlington"(also at Saint Ann's Warehouse) of characters trapped in a room in the perhaps not-so-distant future "waiting", obviously an homage to another well-known Irish playwright whom we need not name. And to add to the already yawn-worthy premise he uses the Ivo Van Hove trick of throwing garbage all over the stage for what reason I'm not sure although it's quite the thing these days. The fictional village of Ballyturk and its occupants that the two trapped characters create recalled Dylan Thomas's "Under Milkwood" and gave me a glimmer of hope that the play might have something other than its fatalistic outcome up its sleeve but it was not to be. However, the performances by Tadhg Murphy, Mikel Murfi and Olwen Fouere as a third character (the devil?, angel of doom?, god?) are superb.
"He Brought Her Heart Back In A Box" from the African-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy currently at Theatre for a New Audience is admirable if a bit static. It stars two young Yale School of Drama graduates Juliana Canfield and Tom Pecinka and is directed by Evan Yionoulis, the resident director at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Unfortunately the 45 minute play feels more like a history/civics lesson on race relations in the South than a window into Kennedy's person history. The 1940's. A boy. A white boy. A girl. A black girl. A black girl who can "pass." A love story. A tragedy. You can guess the rest. However, Christopher Barreca's scenic design is delicious. a single long staircase divides the set representing the divide between the lives of the characters which they must not but do cross. The lighting by Donald Holder is dreamlike and Justin Ellington's score which incorporates period songs and Noel Coward's "Bitter Sweet" is hypnotic. And it's worth the trek to Brooklyn to see what the 86 year old Ms. Kennedy is up to even if it's not such a much. It's still a much more than most.
"An Ordinary Muslim" directed by Jo Bonney now in previews at NYTW is just that: ordinary. Hammaad Chaudry, a first time playwright from Edinburgh has nevertheless amassed quite an impressive string of playwriting awards for a thus far unproduced playwright so forgive me for expecting more. I felt no empathy for the central character Azeem, the spoiled son of an Anglo-Pakistani family. He is "an angry young man" struggling with what it is to be a Pakastani in England and, although his is a real dilemma, the character does not look to any solutions other than to reject everything that is offered him and Sanjit De Silva was unable to make his character likable or even understandable. Andrew Hovelson as Azeem's work friend David who bends over backward to support his friend and Angel Desai, who briefly appears as Azeem's sister Javaria, are the only characters who elicit any sympathy. The plays follows a pretty straightforward narrative and there's not much original to be had here. The Pakistani Joe Orton Chaudry is not.
"Returning to Reims" now playing at St. Ann's Warehouse is more of history lecture than a play until the last 15 minutes but you may have fallen asleep or zoned out by then. This is not to say that the content is not interesting but it's not theatre. An actress called Katy, Nina Hoss, arrives at a recording studio and immediately starts to record the narration for a documentary. The confusion begins when we discover about 20 minutes in that the narrator is a gay French man, the French writer Didier Eribon, and not a straight German woman so all our assumptions up to that point we must discard. This is just one of the ways the director Thomas Ostermeier attempts to straddle the bounderies of gender as well as nationality and political thought but it's just confusing as opposed to revolutionary. The documentary within the play follows Eribon's autobiographical book about growing up gay in a working class enclave of Reims, France. He not only records his own development but that of the working class and their move from political progressiveness to the embrace of the nationalist movement and Le Penn. There are certainly parallels to the current climate in this country and in this sense the play is timely and presumably the reason for the production being presented here. Hoss is an exquisite actress (If you haven't seen the 2014 film "Phoenix" set in Germany in the aftermath of WW2 add it to your Netflix queue) and even given the relatively flat delivery of the narration her voice is intoxicating. But the real meat of the play comes in the final 15 minutes or so when Hoss begins to tell the her own story and we discover that her father is Willi Hoss who himself came from working class beginnings and went on to co-found the Green Party in Germany. In my opinion this should have been the the beginning...
"He Brought Her Heart Back In A Box" from the African-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy currently at Theatre for a New Audience is admirable if a bit static. It stars two young Yale School of Drama graduates Juliana Canfield and Tom Pecinka and is directed by Evan Yionoulis, the resident director at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Unfortunately the 45 minute play feels more like a history/civics lesson on race relations in the South than a window into Kennedy's person history. The 1940's. A boy. A white boy. A girl. A black girl. A black girl who can "pass." A love story. A tragedy. You can guess the rest. However, Christopher Barreca's scenic design is delicious. a single long staircase divides the set representing the divide between the lives of the characters which they must not but do cross. The lighting by Donald Holder is dreamlike and Justin Ellington's score which incorporates period songs and Noel Coward's "Bitter Sweet" is hypnotic. And it's worth the trek to Brooklyn to see what the 86 year old Ms. Kennedy is up to even if it's not such a much. It's still a much more than most.
"An Ordinary Muslim" directed by Jo Bonney now in previews at NYTW is just that: ordinary. Hammaad Chaudry, a first time playwright from Edinburgh has nevertheless amassed quite an impressive string of playwriting awards for a thus far unproduced playwright so forgive me for expecting more. I felt no empathy for the central character Azeem, the spoiled son of an Anglo-Pakistani family. He is "an angry young man" struggling with what it is to be a Pakastani in England and, although his is a real dilemma, the character does not look to any solutions other than to reject everything that is offered him and Sanjit De Silva was unable to make his character likable or even understandable. Andrew Hovelson as Azeem's work friend David who bends over backward to support his friend and Angel Desai, who briefly appears as Azeem's sister Javaria, are the only characters who elicit any sympathy. The plays follows a pretty straightforward narrative and there's not much original to be had here. The Pakistani Joe Orton Chaudry is not.
"Returning to Reims" now playing at St. Ann's Warehouse is more of history lecture than a play until the last 15 minutes but you may have fallen asleep or zoned out by then. This is not to say that the content is not interesting but it's not theatre. An actress called Katy, Nina Hoss, arrives at a recording studio and immediately starts to record the narration for a documentary. The confusion begins when we discover about 20 minutes in that the narrator is a gay French man, the French writer Didier Eribon, and not a straight German woman so all our assumptions up to that point we must discard. This is just one of the ways the director Thomas Ostermeier attempts to straddle the bounderies of gender as well as nationality and political thought but it's just confusing as opposed to revolutionary. The documentary within the play follows Eribon's autobiographical book about growing up gay in a working class enclave of Reims, France. He not only records his own development but that of the working class and their move from political progressiveness to the embrace of the nationalist movement and Le Penn. There are certainly parallels to the current climate in this country and in this sense the play is timely and presumably the reason for the production being presented here. Hoss is an exquisite actress (If you haven't seen the 2014 film "Phoenix" set in Germany in the aftermath of WW2 add it to your Netflix queue) and even given the relatively flat delivery of the narration her voice is intoxicating. But the real meat of the play comes in the final 15 minutes or so when Hoss begins to tell the her own story and we discover that her father is Willi Hoss who himself came from working class beginnings and went on to co-found the Green Party in Germany. In my opinion this should have been the the beginning...
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Ah, January
Fiasco's "Twelfth Night" at CSC started out my year on a leaden foot. This is probably the most performed of all of Shakespeare's plays for the simple reason that it is almost impossible to ruin. Well, it happened. I am so unimpressed with this company that was born out of the Brown/Trinity MFA acting program. In an interview in the program, the company founders, Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld,who also are co-directors of and actors in the play, state that they have been "heavily influenced by the work of Cicely Berry and Andrew Wade" who "opened our eyes to the purpose, structure, and rhythm of prose." Aside from the fact that Shakespeare ain't exactly prose, nowhere in the current production is this in evidence. One would think that classically trained actors, even in the U.S. would have more of feel for and understanding of the language of Shakespeare. Instead, the actors, most notably Emily Young who plays Viola, awkwardly gesticulate and punch out their words. The only solace I found was in the musical interludes. I plan to pass on this company's future productions.
But all is well in the world after seeing "Farinelli and the King" at the Belasco Theatre. The play, written by Claire Van Kampen and directed by John Dove, is a sensory joy. Mark Rylance has always been too hammy a theatre actor for me but the part of the manic-depressive Philippe V of Spain is tailor-made for him (quite literally as Ms. Van Kampen is his wife). This is a character of great excess and Rylance plays it to the hilt. Farinelli, the castrato who Queen Isabella introduces into his life to soothe his madness, is portrayed by the actor Sam Crane as well as two countertenors (there are no longer any castrati for obvious reasons), Iestyn Davies and James Hall. The conceit works to perfection. As the singer(s) Farinelli sings his gorgeous arias he is shadowed by the actor dressed as his twin. Melody Grove as Isabella is the queen who loves her husband beyond imagination but is as seduced by Farinelli's voice as he is. I last saw her as the title character in the "The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart" at the McKittrick Hotel where she masterfully held the stage. The production design is exquisite and the lighting draws us into the period. I read somewhere that the production is lit exclusively by candlelight. I don't know if this is true but have no reason to doubt it.
"The Children" directed by James Macdonald at the the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre is another British import. Lucy Kirkwood's post-apocalyptic play set in a cottage on Britain's east coast in the aftermath of nuclear disaster has already garnered her awards, most recently the U.K. Writer's Guild Award for Best Play. The play which stars Ron Cook, Francesca Annis and Deborah Finley debuted at the Royal Court Theatre in 2016. A couple, retired nuclear physicists played by Ron Cook and Deborah Finley are visited by a friend, Francesca Annis also a nuclear physicist, who they haven't seen in years. As the play unfolds we begin to suspect the reason for her visit. No spoilers here but it's not a happy one. The acting is what lifts the play above the material (which is good but perhaps overpraised). I was especially pleased to see Deborah Findlay in another meaty role, having recently had the great fortune to see her in Caryl Churchill's "Escaped Alone" at BAM, another play with a post-apocalyptic bent.
But all is well in the world after seeing "Farinelli and the King" at the Belasco Theatre. The play, written by Claire Van Kampen and directed by John Dove, is a sensory joy. Mark Rylance has always been too hammy a theatre actor for me but the part of the manic-depressive Philippe V of Spain is tailor-made for him (quite literally as Ms. Van Kampen is his wife). This is a character of great excess and Rylance plays it to the hilt. Farinelli, the castrato who Queen Isabella introduces into his life to soothe his madness, is portrayed by the actor Sam Crane as well as two countertenors (there are no longer any castrati for obvious reasons), Iestyn Davies and James Hall. The conceit works to perfection. As the singer(s) Farinelli sings his gorgeous arias he is shadowed by the actor dressed as his twin. Melody Grove as Isabella is the queen who loves her husband beyond imagination but is as seduced by Farinelli's voice as he is. I last saw her as the title character in the "The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart" at the McKittrick Hotel where she masterfully held the stage. The production design is exquisite and the lighting draws us into the period. I read somewhere that the production is lit exclusively by candlelight. I don't know if this is true but have no reason to doubt it.
"The Children" directed by James Macdonald at the the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre is another British import. Lucy Kirkwood's post-apocalyptic play set in a cottage on Britain's east coast in the aftermath of nuclear disaster has already garnered her awards, most recently the U.K. Writer's Guild Award for Best Play. The play which stars Ron Cook, Francesca Annis and Deborah Finley debuted at the Royal Court Theatre in 2016. A couple, retired nuclear physicists played by Ron Cook and Deborah Finley are visited by a friend, Francesca Annis also a nuclear physicist, who they haven't seen in years. As the play unfolds we begin to suspect the reason for her visit. No spoilers here but it's not a happy one. The acting is what lifts the play above the material (which is good but perhaps overpraised). I was especially pleased to see Deborah Findlay in another meaty role, having recently had the great fortune to see her in Caryl Churchill's "Escaped Alone" at BAM, another play with a post-apocalyptic bent.
Monday, January 8, 2018
Best and Worst of 2017
There was so much good theatre this past year if you were lucky enough to catch any of it. Below are my top 10 in no particular order:
Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" at The Park Avenue Armory with Bobby Cannavale
Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" by PTP/NYC at the Atlantic Theatre
Stephen Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park with George" on Broadway with Jake Gullenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford
Bill T. Jones "A Letter to My Nephew" at BAM Harvey
Duncan MacMillan's "People, Places, Things" at St. Ann's Warehouse with Denise Gough
Jen Silverman's "The Moors" at The Playwright's Realm
Rachel Bonds' "Sundown, Yellow Moon" at Ars Nova
J.T. Rogers "Oslo" at the Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center
Lucas Hnath's "A Doll's House Part 2" on Broadway with Chris Cooper and Laurie Metcalf
Heather Christian's "Animal Wisdom" at The Bushwick Starr
Honorable Mentions:
The Encore production of Lerner and Loewe's "Brigadoon" at City Center with Kelli O'Hara
Martin McDonagh's "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" at BAM Harvey
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch's "Cafe Muller and Right of Spring" at BAM Opera
Shakespeare in the Park's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"at the Delacorte with Annaleigh Ashford
Amy Herzog's "Mary Jane" at NYTW
Martin Zimmerman's "On the Exhale" at The Roundabout with Marin Ireland
Robert Lepage's "887" at BAM Harvey
David Harrower's "Knives in Hens" at 59E59
Gare St. Lazar Ireland's "The Beckett Trilogy" at Lincoln Center White Light Festival with Conor Lovett
Manual Cinema's "Mementos Mori" at BAM Fisher.
I saw many, many more performances that I enjoyed in 2017 but I'm sticking to naming only the best of the best, although perhaps an extra honorable mention to Richard Nelson's "Illyria" at The Public Theatre is necessary.
My favorite emerging theatre companies at the moment are The Playwright's Realm, The Bushwick Starr and Ars Nova although they have had their share of misfires. Last year I would have included Soho Rep but I was really put off by several recent productions and readings.
Unfortunately, some of the WORST theatre ever also happened in 2017. Here are a few for your consideration:
Theatre de la Ville, Paris's production of Albert Camus's "State of Siege" at BAM Opera
Ayad Akhtar's "Junk" at the Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center
Richard Maxwell's "Samara" at Soho Rep
Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen's "The Light Years" at Playwright's Horizons
Geoff Sobelle's "The Object Lesson" at NYTW
Lynn Nottage's "Sweat" on Broadway
Matthew Aucoin's "Crossing" at BAM Opera
Michael Yates' "The Rape of the Sabine Women by Grace P. Matthias" at the Playwright's Realm
Dominique Morriseau's "Pipeline" at the Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center
Bryna Turner's "Bull in a China Shop" at the Claire Tow Theatre at Lincoln Center
Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" at The Park Avenue Armory with Bobby Cannavale
Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" by PTP/NYC at the Atlantic Theatre
Stephen Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park with George" on Broadway with Jake Gullenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford
Bill T. Jones "A Letter to My Nephew" at BAM Harvey
Duncan MacMillan's "People, Places, Things" at St. Ann's Warehouse with Denise Gough
Jen Silverman's "The Moors" at The Playwright's Realm
Rachel Bonds' "Sundown, Yellow Moon" at Ars Nova
J.T. Rogers "Oslo" at the Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center
Lucas Hnath's "A Doll's House Part 2" on Broadway with Chris Cooper and Laurie Metcalf
Heather Christian's "Animal Wisdom" at The Bushwick Starr
Honorable Mentions:
The Encore production of Lerner and Loewe's "Brigadoon" at City Center with Kelli O'Hara
Martin McDonagh's "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" at BAM Harvey
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch's "Cafe Muller and Right of Spring" at BAM Opera
Shakespeare in the Park's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"at the Delacorte with Annaleigh Ashford
Amy Herzog's "Mary Jane" at NYTW
Martin Zimmerman's "On the Exhale" at The Roundabout with Marin Ireland
Robert Lepage's "887" at BAM Harvey
David Harrower's "Knives in Hens" at 59E59
Gare St. Lazar Ireland's "The Beckett Trilogy" at Lincoln Center White Light Festival with Conor Lovett
Manual Cinema's "Mementos Mori" at BAM Fisher.
I saw many, many more performances that I enjoyed in 2017 but I'm sticking to naming only the best of the best, although perhaps an extra honorable mention to Richard Nelson's "Illyria" at The Public Theatre is necessary.
My favorite emerging theatre companies at the moment are The Playwright's Realm, The Bushwick Starr and Ars Nova although they have had their share of misfires. Last year I would have included Soho Rep but I was really put off by several recent productions and readings.
Theatre de la Ville, Paris's production of Albert Camus's "State of Siege" at BAM Opera
Ayad Akhtar's "Junk" at the Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center
Richard Maxwell's "Samara" at Soho Rep
Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen's "The Light Years" at Playwright's Horizons
Geoff Sobelle's "The Object Lesson" at NYTW
Lynn Nottage's "Sweat" on Broadway
Matthew Aucoin's "Crossing" at BAM Opera
Michael Yates' "The Rape of the Sabine Women by Grace P. Matthias" at the Playwright's Realm
Dominique Morriseau's "Pipeline" at the Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center
Bryna Turner's "Bull in a China Shop" at the Claire Tow Theatre at Lincoln Center
Saturday, January 6, 2018
December Blew in and Out
Much as I would like to report that I loved Ariane Mnouchkine's 3 1/2 hour "A Room in India" at the Park Avenue Armory, I cannot. I am a great champion of her work with Theatre du Soleil having been blown away by the Oresteia (Agamemnon, Choephori, and The Eumenides) at her space outside of Paris, the Cartoucherie, in the early 90's and extremely moved by "Le Derniere Caravanserail" (about the immigrant crisis in Europe) at the Lincoln Center White Light Festival several years ago. But I found "A Room in India" to be shrieky and self-indulgent. Presumably it is autobiographical. Although titled, "A Room in India" the room could have been anywhere. It's really about the room in the mind of the creator and her central question "Of what worth is the theatre I am creating?" although once again she addresses the immigrant crisis. While normally I have had no problem, even enjoyed, the length Mnouchkine's productions, in this case I would have preferred some trimming, especially of the Indian dance sequences. There are enough ideas ping-ponging around during the play for several plays and it feels like everything get short shrift here. On a side note, the Indian pre-performance dinner was wonderful.
"Farmhouse/Whorehouse" at BAM Fisher is a one-woman show with Lily Taylor. This "Artist Lecture," as it is called in the program, is by Suzanne Bocanegra and directed by Lee Sunday Evens takes us to the author's grandparent's farm in Texas which was across the road from the infamous "chicken farm" on which "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" was based. The story is interesting and well constructed although I could have done without the playwright feeding lines to Lily Taylor over a monitor throughout the play. Taylor is a charming stage performer, something I did not expect having never been overly impressed by her film work.
"20th Century Blues" at The Pershing Square Signature Center by Susan Miller is essentially chick-lit for women in the over-60 bracket. If you fit that category then you will find the two hours pleasant enough. Four women who met at a protest in the 70's have continued to meet every year to catch up and have their picture taken by the central character, a photographer. Each character is a type that we know well and the play addresses all the issues we expect: marriage, divorce, career, children. A niggling complaint was with a discussion of plastic surgery, as will happen when women of certain age and class get together. Polly Draper in the central role claims to eschew it although her face lifts and other work are clearly evident. This is an example of middling play wasting the talents of a great director, in this case Emily Mann. The performance to note is that of Kathryn Grody, a veteran New York actor and Mandy Patinkin's wife.
Bedlam, as always, strikes home with their production of "Peter Pan" at The Duke theatre. I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of Bedlam productions (the honors go to "Hamlet," "Sense and Sensibility," "Twelfth Night," and "What You Will" in that order) but the company is always inventive and pushing the boundaries with cross-dressing actors and sometimes overtly sexual insinuations. This is not a "Peter Pan" for the young set. Directed by company founder Eric Tucker who also plays
Father among a slew of other characters, the ensemble cast includes Bedlam regulars Edmund Lewis, Kelley Curran and Susannah Millonzi as well as newcomers to the company Zuzanna Szadkowski and Brad Heberlee(as Peter Pan).
Who am I to write a review of the Broadway production of "SpongeBob SquarePants," based on a popular cartoon I have maybe seen two episodes of? I don't know what got into me (Perhaps because the book by Kyle Jarrow was directed by the experimental director Tina Landau and the songs by Steven Tyler, Cyndi Lauper and David Bowie were straight out of the 80's rock pantheon. Was this enough?) but I coerced my 21-year-old son into attending with me with an offer of Black Tap and off we went. Ethan Slater is indeed a find for Broadway as the title character and the sets are Rube Goldberg fun. I did get a little head-achey as the play went on but the Ziegfeld-inspired number performed in Act II by Gavin Lee as Squidward, "I'm Not a Loser," conjures up the great Tommy Tune. Go for that.
An overhyped "Today Is My Birthday" at Home. Written by Susan Soon He Stanton and directed by the reliable Kip Fagan there is really not much to recommend here. The main character Emily, who, by the way, does not have have a birthday during the course of the play, is portrayed by another downtown stalwart Jennifer Ikeda. I found no fault with the performances and was especially taken by Nadine Malouf who plays a distraught mom but the devise of having the characters only interact on the phone felt tired and there was nothing unique or special in this story of a young woman coming home after a failed relationship and career.
Playwrights Horizons finally delivers with "Mankind." Perhaps not to everyone's taste, this futuristic tale of a society where there are no women is cleverly conceived and entertaining. The premise is that men can get pregnant and are subject to the same societal dictates that women are now so, when one of the main characters get pregnant and wants to have an abortion, he and his partner are sent to prison. However, when he gives birth to the first girl since the extinction of women he becomes a god to the new wave of male "feminists." The play which was written and directed by the queer black playwright Robert O'Hara is broad but original and moving and addresses the question "Has man EVER been kind?".
"Farmhouse/Whorehouse" at BAM Fisher is a one-woman show with Lily Taylor. This "Artist Lecture," as it is called in the program, is by Suzanne Bocanegra and directed by Lee Sunday Evens takes us to the author's grandparent's farm in Texas which was across the road from the infamous "chicken farm" on which "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" was based. The story is interesting and well constructed although I could have done without the playwright feeding lines to Lily Taylor over a monitor throughout the play. Taylor is a charming stage performer, something I did not expect having never been overly impressed by her film work.
"20th Century Blues" at The Pershing Square Signature Center by Susan Miller is essentially chick-lit for women in the over-60 bracket. If you fit that category then you will find the two hours pleasant enough. Four women who met at a protest in the 70's have continued to meet every year to catch up and have their picture taken by the central character, a photographer. Each character is a type that we know well and the play addresses all the issues we expect: marriage, divorce, career, children. A niggling complaint was with a discussion of plastic surgery, as will happen when women of certain age and class get together. Polly Draper in the central role claims to eschew it although her face lifts and other work are clearly evident. This is an example of middling play wasting the talents of a great director, in this case Emily Mann. The performance to note is that of Kathryn Grody, a veteran New York actor and Mandy Patinkin's wife.
Bedlam, as always, strikes home with their production of "Peter Pan" at The Duke theatre. I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of Bedlam productions (the honors go to "Hamlet," "Sense and Sensibility," "Twelfth Night," and "What You Will" in that order) but the company is always inventive and pushing the boundaries with cross-dressing actors and sometimes overtly sexual insinuations. This is not a "Peter Pan" for the young set. Directed by company founder Eric Tucker who also plays
Father among a slew of other characters, the ensemble cast includes Bedlam regulars Edmund Lewis, Kelley Curran and Susannah Millonzi as well as newcomers to the company Zuzanna Szadkowski and Brad Heberlee(as Peter Pan).
Who am I to write a review of the Broadway production of "SpongeBob SquarePants," based on a popular cartoon I have maybe seen two episodes of? I don't know what got into me (Perhaps because the book by Kyle Jarrow was directed by the experimental director Tina Landau and the songs by Steven Tyler, Cyndi Lauper and David Bowie were straight out of the 80's rock pantheon. Was this enough?) but I coerced my 21-year-old son into attending with me with an offer of Black Tap and off we went. Ethan Slater is indeed a find for Broadway as the title character and the sets are Rube Goldberg fun. I did get a little head-achey as the play went on but the Ziegfeld-inspired number performed in Act II by Gavin Lee as Squidward, "I'm Not a Loser," conjures up the great Tommy Tune. Go for that.
An overhyped "Today Is My Birthday" at Home. Written by Susan Soon He Stanton and directed by the reliable Kip Fagan there is really not much to recommend here. The main character Emily, who, by the way, does not have have a birthday during the course of the play, is portrayed by another downtown stalwart Jennifer Ikeda. I found no fault with the performances and was especially taken by Nadine Malouf who plays a distraught mom but the devise of having the characters only interact on the phone felt tired and there was nothing unique or special in this story of a young woman coming home after a failed relationship and career.
Playwrights Horizons finally delivers with "Mankind." Perhaps not to everyone's taste, this futuristic tale of a society where there are no women is cleverly conceived and entertaining. The premise is that men can get pregnant and are subject to the same societal dictates that women are now so, when one of the main characters get pregnant and wants to have an abortion, he and his partner are sent to prison. However, when he gives birth to the first girl since the extinction of women he becomes a god to the new wave of male "feminists." The play which was written and directed by the queer black playwright Robert O'Hara is broad but original and moving and addresses the question "Has man EVER been kind?".
Friday, December 1, 2017
End of November Days
I urge anyone who can sit for four hours and enjoy a play in Dutch to head over to BAM to see Ivo Van Hove's dramatic interpretation of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" which continues through the weekend. I've gradually come around to Van Hove since first seeing his ghastly "Misanthrope" at NYTW. But I have reluctantly attended his "The Crucible" and "A View From The Bridge" on Broadway and have grown to appreciate that he is operating on this planet. He is a master of using mixed media but also an intuitive director of actors, here a gorgeous group that includes the exquisite Halina Reijn as Dominique Francon and Ramsey Nasr as the doomed architect Howard Roark, also a gorgeous physical specimen. Full disclosure: They both get naked... more than once. Like Ayn Rand or not, this is powerful drama of success, failure and personal responsibility. But he will continue to strew garbage all over the stage when given the opportunity.
You probably missed the Encores presentation of Lerner & Loewe's "Brigadoon" at City Center earlier this month but let me tell you that it was blissful. The story of a Scottish town that comes to life for one day every 100 years is ridiculous but to hear Kelli O'Hara sing is always a joy. Patrick Wilson was a surprise in a role originally intended for Steven Pasquale (who made the ghastly mistake of taking the lead in "Junk" at Lincoln Center instead). I only really know him as the closeted Mormon Joe Pitt in HBO's "Angels in America" and from a guest turn on the TV show "Girls," but he's actually a fine singer and held his own with O'Hara. "Brigadoon" was directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon who comes from the ballet world. Of course, the dancing is wonderful but Wheeldon, with this and with "American in Paris" on Broadway, is proving himself to be a real force on Broadway.
"Hundred Days" at NYTW is probably a waste of your time if you're not a Millennial living in Williamsburg but, if you are, it's for you. I actually quite like The Bengsons (Abigail and Shaun), having heard their edgy but still folky rock in the fabulous Ars Nova production of "Sundown, Yellow Moon" earlier this year, but their story is just not enough to merit a full length production even with Anne Kauffman's expert direction. Jo Lampert, a singer, musician and performer who was excellent in "New York Animals" at the New Ohio Theatre, brings everything she can to her limited role but it's not enough. "Hundred Days" not a play; it's a concert. It'll be playing at NYTW through December 31 if you want to just kick back, close your eyes and listen to music for 90 minutes over the holidays. You could do worse.
Annie B. Parson's Big Dance Theatre's amusing "17C" at BAM Harvey explores the writings of the 17th Century philanderer and diarist Samuel Pepys and his wife Bess through music, dance and Laugh-in type skits. I haven't seen anything from Parson before but with this particular piece she comes across as a poor man's/woman's Pina Bausch. Even so, I'll take it, but I wish she had given us more dance and less of the long tired monologue delivered by veteran downtown actor Paul Lazar or the repeating schtick with the two college girls working out their relationship via Pepys' diary. Special mention to the costumes by Talla Dia and Karen Boyer, bits and pieces that bring to mind the 17th Century without making this a full blown costume drama.
You probably missed the Encores presentation of Lerner & Loewe's "Brigadoon" at City Center earlier this month but let me tell you that it was blissful. The story of a Scottish town that comes to life for one day every 100 years is ridiculous but to hear Kelli O'Hara sing is always a joy. Patrick Wilson was a surprise in a role originally intended for Steven Pasquale (who made the ghastly mistake of taking the lead in "Junk" at Lincoln Center instead). I only really know him as the closeted Mormon Joe Pitt in HBO's "Angels in America" and from a guest turn on the TV show "Girls," but he's actually a fine singer and held his own with O'Hara. "Brigadoon" was directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon who comes from the ballet world. Of course, the dancing is wonderful but Wheeldon, with this and with "American in Paris" on Broadway, is proving himself to be a real force on Broadway.
"Hundred Days" at NYTW is probably a waste of your time if you're not a Millennial living in Williamsburg but, if you are, it's for you. I actually quite like The Bengsons (Abigail and Shaun), having heard their edgy but still folky rock in the fabulous Ars Nova production of "Sundown, Yellow Moon" earlier this year, but their story is just not enough to merit a full length production even with Anne Kauffman's expert direction. Jo Lampert, a singer, musician and performer who was excellent in "New York Animals" at the New Ohio Theatre, brings everything she can to her limited role but it's not enough. "Hundred Days" not a play; it's a concert. It'll be playing at NYTW through December 31 if you want to just kick back, close your eyes and listen to music for 90 minutes over the holidays. You could do worse.
Annie B. Parson's Big Dance Theatre's amusing "17C" at BAM Harvey explores the writings of the 17th Century philanderer and diarist Samuel Pepys and his wife Bess through music, dance and Laugh-in type skits. I haven't seen anything from Parson before but with this particular piece she comes across as a poor man's/woman's Pina Bausch. Even so, I'll take it, but I wish she had given us more dance and less of the long tired monologue delivered by veteran downtown actor Paul Lazar or the repeating schtick with the two college girls working out their relationship via Pepys' diary. Special mention to the costumes by Talla Dia and Karen Boyer, bits and pieces that bring to mind the 17th Century without making this a full blown costume drama.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
November Is Packed!
Run to get tickets to see Denise Hough's electrifying performance in "People, Places & Things" at St. Ann's Warehouse now through December 3rd. Be prepared though; this is a tough look at addiction. Ms. Hough's Emma is an actress on a downward spiral due to her addiction to just about everything. Duncan MacMillan's play comes to Brooklyn from a hugely successful run at the National Theatre in London. The play itself is pretty standard stuff but, as directed by Jeremy Herrin, and with a magic box of a set by Bunnie Christie it takes us on a surreal journey down the rabbit hole (yes, the allusion to Alice in Wonderland is intended). The supporting cast is excellent, especially Nathaniel Martello-White as Mark, a recovering addict who becomes Emma's friend in rehab.
Another show not to miss is "Animal Wisdom" at The Bushwick Starr which was recently extended through December 9th. Heather Christian's show is part revival meeting and part ghost story as well as a memoire of Ms. Christian's childhood experiences being raised in the deep South. Or, as the program notes state: "Heather talks to dead people, gets freaked out and writes music." Under Mark Rosenblatt's direction "Animal Wisdom" seems so specific to Christian and her friends/musicians that one cannot imagine it performed by anyone else. Hence, a good reason to catch it while you can in the intimate Bushwick Starr theatre.
Kate Hamill's "Pride and Prejudice" is not up to Bedlam's marvelous "Sense and Sensibility" but a step up from "Vanity Fair," both also adapted by Ms. Hamill and starring none other than ... Still, the six actors portraying the multitude of characters from the timeless Austen book have a rollicking good time and take us along for the ride. I only wish Hamill would have left the sneer behind in her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennett. It does a disservice to Austen and her most famous creation. But the Primary Stages production directed by Amanda Dehnert on through December 19th is still a most enjoyable way to pass an evening.
I wish I could be more laudatory about Rajiv Joseph's "Describe The Night" at The Atlantic Theatre Company. I was a big fan of "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" on Broadway and "Guards at the Taj" which was also at The Atlantic, both tightly crafted and absorbing, but this fictionalized story of the Russian writer Isaac Babel is all over the place. This comes down in part to the direction by Giovanna Sardelli but the play itself is a massive undertaking for any director, spanning almost a century and following multiple interrelated characters. I don't know what the plays original intent was but somewhere along the line it became heavy with veiled allusions to Trump's presidency. Fine performances from Danny Burstein as Babel, Zach Grenier as the Stalinite officer who becomes Babel's unlikely friend and Tina Benko as his mad wife and Babel's lover keep it afloat. How much is fact and how much fiction we may never know even with the list of basic facts about Babel that are available on the way out of the theatre. Most impressive is the set by Tim Mackabee, a towering archive of secret Russian documents always ominously present.
In the "if you blinked, you missed them" category are "The Beckett Trilogy" at The Duke Theatre, "Knives in Hens" at Theatre 59E59, "State of Siege" at BAM Opera House and "Man to Man" at BAM Fisher.
The Beckett Trilogy had a three day run as part of Lincoln Center's white light festival and was a hot ticket. I managed to get a return on the day of the last performance and it was worth it to see Conor Lovett of Gare St. Lazare Ireland enact three monologues adapted from Beckett's "Molloy," "Malone Dies" and "The Unnamable." Of the three, all directed by Lovett's wife Judy Hegarty Lovett, "The Unnamable" came the closest to the feel of the great playwrights best works. Lovett, along with his wife, has spent his career exploring and performing Beckett's work. I think Beckett would have approved.
I caught "Knives in Hens" at the very end of its run spurred on by a great review in The New York Times. I otherwise would have missed it not being a great fan of David Harrower whose "Blackbird" was overhyped and inferior. This is an earlier play which took place somewhere in feudal Scotland in the early 1500's. In its current staging director Paul Takacs places the story in the rural South of this country with a cast of three audaciously talented black actors: Robyn Kerr, Shane Taylor, Devin E. Haqq. I was especially moved by the choreography of Yasmine Lee whose sensuous love-making moments frame the play.
There is really not much to say "State of Siege" at BAM Opera. Adapted from Albert Camus's "The Plague" and directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota for Theatre de la Ville, Paris this dark and quasi-operatic display was pretty dull aside from the impressive set by Yves Collet.
And there is even less to to recommend "Man to Man" at BAM Fisher, a one-woman show by Manfred Karge and directed by Bruce Guthrie & Scott Graham(it took two?) about a German woman who adopts the identity of her dead husband in order to survive to survive in Nazi Germany. As with "Describe The Night," the play attempts to span several decades. There is a lot of use of visual gimmicks which feel too studied and Maggie Bain's accent is more Irish or Scottish than German. Fail.
Another show not to miss is "Animal Wisdom" at The Bushwick Starr which was recently extended through December 9th. Heather Christian's show is part revival meeting and part ghost story as well as a memoire of Ms. Christian's childhood experiences being raised in the deep South. Or, as the program notes state: "Heather talks to dead people, gets freaked out and writes music." Under Mark Rosenblatt's direction "Animal Wisdom" seems so specific to Christian and her friends/musicians that one cannot imagine it performed by anyone else. Hence, a good reason to catch it while you can in the intimate Bushwick Starr theatre.
Kate Hamill's "Pride and Prejudice" is not up to Bedlam's marvelous "Sense and Sensibility" but a step up from "Vanity Fair," both also adapted by Ms. Hamill and starring none other than ... Still, the six actors portraying the multitude of characters from the timeless Austen book have a rollicking good time and take us along for the ride. I only wish Hamill would have left the sneer behind in her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennett. It does a disservice to Austen and her most famous creation. But the Primary Stages production directed by Amanda Dehnert on through December 19th is still a most enjoyable way to pass an evening.
I wish I could be more laudatory about Rajiv Joseph's "Describe The Night" at The Atlantic Theatre Company. I was a big fan of "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" on Broadway and "Guards at the Taj" which was also at The Atlantic, both tightly crafted and absorbing, but this fictionalized story of the Russian writer Isaac Babel is all over the place. This comes down in part to the direction by Giovanna Sardelli but the play itself is a massive undertaking for any director, spanning almost a century and following multiple interrelated characters. I don't know what the plays original intent was but somewhere along the line it became heavy with veiled allusions to Trump's presidency. Fine performances from Danny Burstein as Babel, Zach Grenier as the Stalinite officer who becomes Babel's unlikely friend and Tina Benko as his mad wife and Babel's lover keep it afloat. How much is fact and how much fiction we may never know even with the list of basic facts about Babel that are available on the way out of the theatre. Most impressive is the set by Tim Mackabee, a towering archive of secret Russian documents always ominously present.
In the "if you blinked, you missed them" category are "The Beckett Trilogy" at The Duke Theatre, "Knives in Hens" at Theatre 59E59, "State of Siege" at BAM Opera House and "Man to Man" at BAM Fisher.
The Beckett Trilogy had a three day run as part of Lincoln Center's white light festival and was a hot ticket. I managed to get a return on the day of the last performance and it was worth it to see Conor Lovett of Gare St. Lazare Ireland enact three monologues adapted from Beckett's "Molloy," "Malone Dies" and "The Unnamable." Of the three, all directed by Lovett's wife Judy Hegarty Lovett, "The Unnamable" came the closest to the feel of the great playwrights best works. Lovett, along with his wife, has spent his career exploring and performing Beckett's work. I think Beckett would have approved.
I caught "Knives in Hens" at the very end of its run spurred on by a great review in The New York Times. I otherwise would have missed it not being a great fan of David Harrower whose "Blackbird" was overhyped and inferior. This is an earlier play which took place somewhere in feudal Scotland in the early 1500's. In its current staging director Paul Takacs places the story in the rural South of this country with a cast of three audaciously talented black actors: Robyn Kerr, Shane Taylor, Devin E. Haqq. I was especially moved by the choreography of Yasmine Lee whose sensuous love-making moments frame the play.
There is really not much to say "State of Siege" at BAM Opera. Adapted from Albert Camus's "The Plague" and directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota for Theatre de la Ville, Paris this dark and quasi-operatic display was pretty dull aside from the impressive set by Yves Collet.
And there is even less to to recommend "Man to Man" at BAM Fisher, a one-woman show by Manfred Karge and directed by Bruce Guthrie & Scott Graham(it took two?) about a German woman who adopts the identity of her dead husband in order to survive to survive in Nazi Germany. As with "Describe The Night," the play attempts to span several decades. There is a lot of use of visual gimmicks which feel too studied and Maggie Bain's accent is more Irish or Scottish than German. Fail.
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